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June 6th-7th, 2014 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI!

THE LITTLE TALK TODAY WILL BE ON THREE KOANS OF 'THE BOOK OF SERENITY', BELOW IN THIS THREAD.

Dear All,

Please 'sit-a-long' with our MONTHLY4-hourZAZENKAI, netcast LIVE8am to noon Japan time Saturday morning (that is New York 7pm to 11pm, Los Angeles 4pm to 8pm (Friday night), London midnight to 4am and Paris 1am to 5am (early Saturday morning)) ...

... to be visible at the following link during those times andany time thereafter ...

LIVE ZAZENKAI NETCAST at GOOGLE+ IS HERE:CLICK ON THE TAB ON LOWER RIGHT FOR 'FULL SCREEN

FOR THOSE NOT ALREADY MEMBERS OF THE CIRCLE WHO WISH TO JOIN TO SIT LIVE WITH A CAMERA, INSTRUCTIONS are posted AT THIS LINK. WE ARE NOW LIMITED TO 10 INDIVIDUALS WITH CAMERAS, BUT ANY NUMBER CAN WATCH LIVE 'ONE WAY' AND SIT-A-LONG VIA THE ABOVE SCREEN. IF JOINING WITH CAMERA, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR MICROPHONE IS MUTED:

Our Zazenkai consists of our chanting the 'Heart Sutra' and the 'Identity of Relative and Absolute (Sandokai)' in English (please download our Chant Book at the link below), some full floor prostrations (please follow along with me ... or a simple Gassho can be substituted if you wish), a little talk by me ... and we close with the 'Metta Chant', followed at the end with the 'Verse of Atonement' and 'The Four Vows'. Oh, and lots and lots of Zazen and walkin' Kinhin in between!

Please download and print out the Chants we will recite at the following link (PDF):

I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU POSITION YOUR ZAFU ON THE FLOOR IN A PLACE WHERE YOU ARE NOT STARING DIRECTLY AT THE COMPUTER SCREEN, BUT CAN GLANCE OVER AND SEE THE SCREEN WHEN NECESSARY. YOUR ZAFU SHOULD ALSO BE IN A POSITION WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE COMPUTER SCREEN WHILE STANDING IN FRONT OF THE ZAFU FOR THE CEREMONIES, AND HAVE ROOM FOR BOWING AND KINHIN.

ALSO, REMEMBER TO SET YOUR COMPUTER (& SCREEN SAVER) SO THAT IT DOES NOT SHUT OFF DURING THE 4 HOURS.

I hope you will join us ... an open Zafu is waiting. When we drop all thought of 'here' 'there' 'now' 'then' ... we are sitting all together!

... and also this 'real life' sailing story, in the news some weeks ago, of a sick baby and a sinking sailboat far out at sea (the story is told during the first 20 minutes here, from the US public radio show This American Life) ...

... and this passage from Master Dogen's Shobogenzo-Zenki (The Whole Works) ...

Life can be likened to a time when a person is sailing in a boat.
On this boat, I am operating the sail, I have taken the rudder, I am pushing
the pole; at the same time, the boat is carrying me, and there is no “I” beyond
the boat. Through my sailing of the boat, this boat is being caused to be a
boat—let us consider, and learn in practice, just this moment of the present.
At this very moment, there is nothing other than the world of the boat: the
sky, the water, the shore have all become the moment of the boat, which is
utterly different from moments not on the boat. So life is what I am making
it, and I am what life is making me. While I am sailing in the boat, my body
and mind and circumstances and self are all essential parts5 of the boat; and
the whole earth and the whole of space are all essential parts of the boat.
What has been described like this is that life is the self, and the self is life.

I have to attend my niece's graduation ceremony this evening and will likely miss the first half. I am hoping to be home and on my Zafu in time for the Dharma talk and the second half. If not, I will sit with the recording.

Dear Sangha just so you know I am here if peripherally...I do sit the Zazenkai's mid week or later in the weekend as the house allows. Me and my wife have my daugheter and her 2 sons: Lucas 4 and Jimmy-one-sock 1.4 leaving with us..so this house literally rocks. Sadness and a dark year past is turning to sunshine and happy noise....it will change again of that we are sure, but there is comfort on that now.
I think this sangha is stronger than ever and the quality of the population is quite high, committed.
In deepest gassho to Jundo, Taigu and the Treeleaf Sangha!
Seido Ed B

"Know that the practice of zazen is the complete path of buddha-dharma and nothing can be compared to it....it is not the practice of one or two buddhas but all the buddha ancestors practice this way."
Dogen zenji in Bendowa